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Questioning the ADDIE Model???

ADDIE has been a popular instructional design model for a very, very long time. ADDIE stands for Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. Very logical and very training focused. However, it’s not set up well to do rapid development, insure quality and gain acceptance.

First, it treats every training issue or assignment as unique and different. When you’ve built hundreds of training program, you see lots of patterns and similarities. An experienced designer or consultant can easily recognize what’s going on. It’s not uncommon for a needs analysis to reveal the obvious.

Second, in the design stage a lot of things should be done based on pre-made decisions, templates, formats and other tools. For example, if you’re creating a design document for instructor lead training, it should be following the same set of established design principles that are used each time and follow the same format for the workshop or seminar. Instead of a blank piece of paper, most of the work should be modifying from a standard or model.

Third, both the implementation phase and evaluation start too late in the process. For example, doing a stakeholder analysis to determine how to implement a program should be done right at the start. There are a lot of steps in the design and development of training that is specially targeted at getting stakeholder buy in. In addition, most people have trouble measuring training because they build the training first and then try to measure it. It works better to start with building the measures and then designing the training to fit those measures. Having a business case at the start of training is the key.

I find that the more experienced you are, the more you can find ways to do things faster and better than the ADDIE model.

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This blog is focused on anything related to learning faster. From time to time, I'll be posting about my book Learning Paths: Increase profits by reducing the time it takes to get up-to-speed (Pfeiffer 2004).
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